Ashes To Ink
Warren Buffett once said, “It’s good to learn from your mistakes. It’s better to learn from other people’s mistakes.”
Sigh…
I WISH I were more like that. But the truth is, my life has been more in line with the old saying, “he’s gonna have to find out the hard way.”
This pattern in my life can be illustrated by one of my earliest memories. When I was about four years old, I remember taking the cardboard cylinders that are left after the paper towels are empty….you know, the cardboard middle? Anyway, I remember I had two or three of those that I decided to play with. Well, not just play with….what I really decided was to perform a scientific experiment that involved those cardboard cylinders and the large candle that was burning on top of our television set. I would hold that cardboard over the flame JUST until it almost caught fire, and then I would jerk it back.
To this day, I’m not sure why I found this so entertaining, but it is what it is. As you can imagine, there came a point when I held the cardboard over the flame too long and it caught fire. And if there’s one thing I can report about my experiment, it’s that those cardboard cylinders can really light up when they catch fire.
At four years old, I hadn’t really thought through the potential consequences of my actions and, therefore, was genuinely surprised by the sudden blaze that was far nearer to my bare hand than I wanted. I screamed, my mom and sister ran to the living room, and the rest is a blur. I know that my sister grabbed the flaming torch out of my hand and, instead of taking it to the sink about 15 feet away, she ran all the way downstairs to toss it into our fireplace…..evidence that her strategic coping skills were only slightly better than mine. I know my mother was angry and I’m sure I got into big trouble, although I don’t remember what that entailed. Yada, yada, yada….
Bottom line: This story was a strong foreshadowing of my life.
More times than not, when my life has been reduced to ashes, it has been due to my own poor choices….my rebellion…….let’s face it, my sin.
In scriptural terms, I have often found Proverbs 6 to ring true, “Can a man scoop fire into his lap without his clothes being burned? Can a man walk on hot coals without his feet being scorched?”
And in that light, I want to welcome you to “Ashes & Ink.”
Sometimes, you name something you create….and sometimes the name finds you. As I reflect on my life, I can see that most of what I’ve learned along the way came out of my life being reduced to ashes, again and again.
Much of that aligns with the story above; times when I refused to surrender to God and, instead, went into a distant country like the Prodigal son. And, believe me, I have spent many a night in the pig sties of life; places emotionally and spiritually where I “came to my senses” only because I was flat on my face, exposed, and longing for even table scraps of love or relationship.
In those times, it sure felt like my life was reduced to ashes, but I can also affirm that it was in those seasons that I learned the most about myself, and about God.
But if I’m being honest, it hasn’t always been my life choices that led to hardship and suffering. This life has a way of reducing all of us to ashes at times. Let me offer you a pearl of great wisdom right here and right now. Here we go….are you ready?
Life…….is………hard.
Did you catch that? Should I put it on a t-shirt and open an Etsy store? Or do you already know this, dear reader?
Truly, we live in a world where we cannot avoid suffering, no matter how much we try to escape, avoid, and overcome. It’s a world of violence, evil, natural disasters, cruelty, and death. And so, we can all relate to the idea of our worlds being reduced to ashes. And so, because we cannot avoid this, the real question becomes….what are we going to do with it?
And that’s where I’m at, as I begin this journey with you. What am I going to do with the ashes of my life? How can I invite God to turn those ashes into beauty?
Those are the real questions I’m wrestling with; the quest that drives me into writing this blog. It’s the same question that called me to begin Forge & Path, the counseling practice that drives this blog. It’s the idea that the fires in life don’t have to consume us….but, instead, God works in them to transform us. That we can sift through the ashes of the forge and find wisdom there. In fact, I would double down and say that God works in our hearts the MOST in the ashes of the forge, and that is what we’ll be exploring here in “Ashes & Ink.”
This page is not just a blog…it’s a journey, and I would invite you to walk it with me. In this space, I will be as transparent as possible as we chew on the tougher lessons life might take us through.
I’m inviting you into my forge, yes….but, ultimately, I’m inviting you to press into your own.
The forge is a scary place. It is dark, vulnerable, and let’s face it….it burns.
But it also transforms. It redeems. It purifies us into more of who we were meant to be.
And so, my new friends, let’s face these things together, with courage, with perseverance, with faith.
Dear reader, all of us will walk through the fire. There will be moments, sometimes entire seasons, where our lives are reduced to ashes. That is unavoidable.
What is a choice is what we do next.
Some of us try to outrun the ashes. Some of us try to ignore them. Some of us bury them and hope they don’t surface again. But I’m learning… slowly, imperfectly…. that the ashes are not the end of the story. They are often where the story finally begins.
Ashes & Ink is simply a place to sit with that truth. A place to sift through what’s been burned and ask what might still be written. A place to be honest about the fire, and patient with the process that follows.
I don’t write this as someone who has figured it out. I write as someone still in the forge…still learning how to trust God in the heat, still learning how to listen, still learning how to write after the fire.
If you find yourself in the ashes too…weary, reflective, searching for meaning…you’re not alone. You’re welcome here.
